The Closing
by Nezzie Evans
Summary: When Derek and Chloe are offered the chance to leave Badger Lake at last for an educational visit to the Pack they jump on it, but knowing their luck, will everything really go to plan?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: For the purposes of this story I have decided that the Women of the Otherworld series happened a little before the Darkest Powers series, so Kate and Logan are now the same age as the Darkest Powers characters. Please review! :)**

_Disclaimer: If you recognise anything it's because it's, to my great regret, not mine but Kelley Armstrong's._

...

**Chapter 1 - Derek:**

I stared stonily at Sean Nast, CEO of the Nast Cabal since his grandfather's death, as he continued trying to convince me that what he was offering me was truly for the best, seeming completely oblivious to the fact that he'd lost my attention as soon as he got round to telling me what he had in mind. I was sitting in his office in Badger Lake with my arms crossed over my chest and my legs stretched out in front of me. He'd gotten this office made especially so he could spend more time monitoring us while still working, which had been to our advantage, until now. Now it just meant he could start badgering me and trying to convince me to leave that much more easily. And that's exactly what he was trying to get me to do – to leave, which wasn't going to happen, ever. I'd started to trust Sean, against my better judgement, and he'd honestly seemed to want what was best for my family and me, and he hadn't seemed to care about me being a werewolf, and now my trust in him was shattered. After all, why else would he be trying to get rid of me?

He'd started to cotton onto how little I was paying attention, and I saw the flash of dismay and desperation in his eyes before he covered it up again with a calm, collected look. He stopped his blathering and took a deep breath as he ran his hands through his hair and gathered it back up into the small ponytail he usually had before he addressed me again. He said,

"Derek, I know you think I'm trying to get rid of you, and I understand why it might seem that way to you, but I assure you I'm not-"

I snorted – he was essentially asking me to pack my bags and leave the following week. Not trying to get rid of me? Yeah, right. He continued as if I hadn't interrupted him.

"- I honestly believe this is a great opportunity for you and that you should take it, and it might be for the best. After all, it's not easy keeping those you care about safe when you don't know the full extent of what you can do."

And of course he played his trump card. The one he thought was bound to affect me, maybe enough to seriously consider doing as he said. Well, he thought wrong, no matter what he did or said, nothing would make me change my mind on this. I wasn't leaving my family behind, I refused, it wasn't going to happen. End of discussion. I kept staring at Sean, and narrowed my eyes into a shape better suited for glaring, but he just kept looking at me calmly. After a few minutes of silence he said,

"Fine, as you wish. I won't bother you about it anymore. But if you ever change your mind, please do come to talk to me."

I nodded, knowing already that was never going to happen, and stood up. I'd finally stopped growing when I hit 18, and was now at 6'2", meaning I towered over most people, like now. Usually I was glad for it because it made me seem more intimidating, so people generally left me alone, but in some situations, like now, it made me feel a bit uncomfortable. It didn't feel right that I was so much bigger than people like Sean, who was one of the most important people in the supernatural world. Sean stood up and extended a slim, elegant looking hand, which I shook, then smiled at me briefly before sitting back down and turning to the piles of paperwork on his desk. I got the message, and left the office.

...

It was a short walk from Sean's office to Badger Lake; the town the Nasts had constructed for us, the Project Genesis and Project Phoenix kids. At first it had been a small town, with everything we needed and even a school that had the resources to deal with my education requirements. The two best points for me had been the isolation and the huge amounts of forest surrounding our little town. Now it was even more isolated because the Phoenix kids, like us, were kids no longer. We'd always known the Nasts would employ them and to put their special skills to use, and the time had come as soon as all of them had turned 18. The second they had they'd been whisked off to Nast headquarters to start training to be good little cabal employees for real, and they'd been forced to cut all ties with us, although none of us are sure why. Point is, they left and our town is now an empty shell, the only inhabitants a few cabal employees who work in the shop and at the small office near us, and everyone but me hates it. I don't see what's wrong with the isolation – we're genetically modified supernaturals, it's not like the rest of the supernatural world is going to be thrilled about having us among them, so why not keep ourselves to ourselves? The others think I'm crazy and are all getting snippier towards each other every day. They're all sick of having the same company day in day out, as we have done for the past 8 months or so, but what makes it worse is that there's only 6 of us, so it's the same 5 people they see all the time, excluding the occasional cabal employee. I walked through the forest, my forest, along the well-worn path towards home and felt some of my bad mood evaporate. There's nothing like taking a walk knowing you're surrounded by miles of greenery, knowing all of it is for you, and you alone, that no-one else is allowed to do anything to it, that it's all your safe haven, to clear up a foul mood. Even if "safe" is a relative term. I was trudging further into the forest, inhaling deeply when I caught a scent as familiar as my own, and far more exciting. Chloe was near. We'd been dating for a good 3 ½ years now, and I still considered myself to be one of the luckiest guys alive, genetically modified and branded a freak or not, to have her and to have kept her for so long. Every time I wake up and find she still hadn't decided to dump me is a pleasant surprise, no matter how deeply I know that we feel the same way about each other. And the way I feel about her is absolutely impossible to change. Just as a breeze blasted her scent at me extra strong I spotter her. And she was stretched out on a branch right above my head. She grinned at me and rolled off the branch, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that I'd be there to catch her. I set her down on the ground gently and leaned down. She'd definitely grown since we'd first started dating, but she was still tiny compared to me. She stood on her tiptoes and just as I closed my eyes she leant past me and whispered, sweet as anything,

"Only if you go to the Pack like Sean suggested."

My eyes flew open and I stared at her, completely baffled for a few seconds as to how she'd managed to find out about that before I realised that Sean must have called her as soon as I'd left. He hadn't played his best card yet after all. That manipulative bastard! I growled and Chloe just laughed. Yep, it looked like I was going to go pay the Pack a visit. I took a second to compose myself before I replied.

"Let me guess. The flights have already been booked, all arrangements made and we'll be in Syracuse by next week. Did I get all the details right?"

Chloe looked at me for a second before she broke it to me. I was going alone. Like Sean had suggested to begin with. She seemed to already know what I was going to say and cut me off,

"Look Derek, Sean really does have your best interests in mind, and you have to admit that it would be nice to be surrounded by werewolves who can teach you so much you don't know. I know the Nasts have been trying to come up with a good set of reliable information for you, but there's really only so much they can find out. At this point the only thing you can do is go to Syracuse and stay with them for a bit. It's only for a few weeks, no big deal, right?"

She looked up at me with a hopeful expression and as much as I wanted to say no and yell at the top of my lungs how I was never going to leave her behind and how no-one could force me to, that expression forced my mouth to open of its own accord and start to agree before I caught myself. I agreed to go, on one condition. That she came with me. I knew it was dangerous for her, being surrounded by werewolves, but right now I wanted to be selfish. I didn't think I could do it on my own, no matter how much I might wish I was strong enough to handle it without any help, and she was my best support system. She looked at me for another minute then sighed deeply.

"Well, it looks like you're going back to Sean then. It seems he's going to have to book an additional seat on the jet."

I grinned at her and took it as a mini victory, because I now saw it as an educational holiday with my girlfriend instead of a few weeks away from home and my family worrying about them constantly. I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the opposite direction to where we'd been heading, eager to get everything sorted. After all, it wasn't always equally easy to track down Sean. We were there in less than five minutes, and arrived at Sean's office just as he was shoving a stack of papers into his briefcase. He looked up, saw me and Chloe and smiled.

"I take it everything went as planned then?"

Chloe smiled back and nodded, then laughed at the glare I was shooting her. She'd gotten what she wanted, she was happy to endure a few of my meaner looks for a while, and since I couldn't hold them long around her they never had much effect anyway. I felt my face relax into a neutral expression, but I was determined not to grin back. I still wasn't happy. I turned to Sean and said, as politely rude as possible, that I refused to go unless Chloe was coming with me. His smile slipped and he rubbed his mouth before saying,

"You do realise that's not the best of ideas right? It could be quite dangerous for her, and it's already hard enough to convince the Pack to take in even one person they don't know. They're very territorial you know."

I gave him a cool look before replying.

"I know the risks, and so does Chloe. You want me to go there? You're gonna have to make it a trip for two. It's hard enough for me to leave the rest of my family behind, but I'm not leaving her. I don't see why I have to go visit the Pack to begin with, not when I already know everything I need to."

Chloe just looked at me for a couple of seconds before turning to Sean and saying, remarkably cheerful considering I had just ignored everything she'd told not to do so I wouldn't come across as rude,

"I told you so! I told you he would refuse to leave without taking me with him! I told you!"

She grinned broadly as Sean slumped his shoulders in defeat. He explained that he'd first taken his idea to Chloe to see what she thought. She'd thought it was a great idea, but with one major problem – I would never go for it if it meant I had to leave her behind. I know it sounds like she's being a bit presumptuous, but she just knows me well. I really am that protective and possessive, and thank God she doesn't let it get to her. I left the office again shortly after and walked back with Chloe, who was already chattering about all the things she wanted to do in New York. We didn't get to leave Badger Lake often, and the prospect of leaving for at least a month seemed like heaven to her. Me, not so much, but I smiled at her and agreed anyway; if it made her that happy I was hardly going to ruin her mood by sulking. We got back home and Chloe immediately raced off as I shut the door behind us. I'd barely taken two steps towards the living room when she came back, practically bouncing up and down with excitement holding a small folder that looked vaguely familiar. She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards to the couch, and practically shoved me down onto it, still looking ridiculously happy. I realised why the folder had looked familiar just as she snuggled in next to me, and immediately tried using some distraction techniques as a general feeling of dread started to set in. She was having none of it and wriggled away from me, then settled herself again on the opposite end of the couch with a businesslike expression on her face. She opened the folder and looked at me and said,

"Right, let's go over exactly what kind of questions you're going to ask them and how you're going to behave while we're there. You ready?"

I sent her my saddest look, eyes wide and head tilted slightly to the side, trying to convey just how little I wanted to do this. She just laughed and took it as a confirmation.

"Right then, it's been a while since you last co-operated enough to let me update this properly, so we're just going to have to start from scratch, aren't we?"

She seemed all business, but I could still see the barely concealed grin blazing beneath the surface. She probably thought all her dreams were coming true while I was watching one of my nightmares unfold before me. She'd been trying to get me interested in my werewolf heritage for years, and for years I'd been telling her I knew everything I needed to, and was happy with just that. And now she'd won. And she was pretty damned pleased with it too. I sighed and braced myself for what was coming, then leant back against the couch and said,

"Well, let's just get it over with then shall we?"

...

Next week found Chloe feverishly packing three days in advance, alternating between folding everything neatly; placing it into the suitcase just so and shoving clothes and other items in anywhere she found space, trying to get me to do the same all the while. I, on the other hand, would only need about ten minutes to shove everything I needed into a bag about four times smaller than Chloe's trunk, and planned to do so just before we were due to leave. We'd disagreed on how to break to the others that we were going to be leaving them behind for at least a month, heading towards freedom and possibly adventure, even if we'd had more than enough of it to last us a lifetime, while they stayed behind in our deserted, boring little town with a population of about 10. Finally, we'd decided to leave a note – more personal than getting Sean to pass on a message but less likely to backfire than if we told them we were leaving in advance. It seemed perfect, until we realised there was a slight flaw in our plan. Simon and Tori came to our cottage all the time – it was only a matter of time before one of them walked in and saw Chloe madly throwing things into her suitcase from across the room, a slightly manic expression on her face, and put two and two together. Unfortunately, in Simon's case, he put two and two together and got five. He thought Chloe was leaving me, and flipped out. Chloe was too distracted to pay attention properly, intent on finding whatever object she was hunting through the drawers for, and by the time I got there Simon had worked himself into a complete state and seemed ready to knock her out until I got there so we could "work things out". Since he wasn't leaving until he got a full explanation I gave him one, telling him Sean wanted to send me to the Pack for a while, hoping I would be accepted there and might even choose to become a part of it. He and Chloe both thought I would be safer there than if I continued to live in cabal custody because as safe as it seemed now, there was still a whole supernatural world out there that didn't tolerate werewolves, and feared them. I had some firsthand experience with that from when I was 16, and the person my dad had trusted above all had worked together with others to try and get rid of me. Sean had some connections to the pack, like his baby sister Savannah, a witch-sorcerer hybrid like Tori, and had used them to get the Pack to accept us into their territory for a while. Simon accepted it all without a word, then walked over to the phone, dialled and waited patiently.

"Hey Sean, just heard from Derek and Chloe that they're going to visit the Pack, and I'm afraid we're gonna need one more space on the jet because there's no way I'm letting them go without me."

He listened for a bit, nodded to himself, and listened some more before his face lit up into a brilliant smile.

"Alright, thanks. Just by the way, it's really very likely Tori is going to find out about this too, and if I know my sister at all there's no way she's going to pass up an opportunity like this, so I'd keep a fourth seat free for just in case. Bye!"

Simon hung up before Sean got the chance to reply, and then turned his grin to us. He waved cheerily, and left to pack his bag before he said goodbye to all of the bits of the town that he wasn't going to miss. As nice as our town is, it's still our prison, and none of us have ever forgotten that. Simon was right, and once Tori figured out what was going she hit the roof, and there was no stopping her. She spent a full hour yelling down the phone at Sean, demanding to be given permission to join us, listing a million reasons why she should be able to come, none of which made any sense to me. In between howls of "It's not _fair_!" she got out a lot of profanity, and while she still annoyed me, I had to admit I was impressed. No-one else I knew would dare scream at the CEO of a powerful cabal like that, let alone make a tonne of demands while they were at it. It took a lot of "persuading" to get Sean to give in, but she managed it and less than two days later we were on the plane to New York with a very satisfied Tori, even if she did have a sore throat and had lost her voice for a while, which had been great when it lasted.

...

Before we left we were treated to a rather repetitive lecture from Sean, telling us all the dos and don'ts of meeting the Pack, and what our visit meant as well as the terms and conditions. The general gist was that we would under no circumstances threaten the Alpha; we wouldn't try to attack her because it would end in our immediate death; we had to respect her and the rest of the Pack; we couldn't eat before she did; and for the first few days we were to strictly adhere to the principle of "don't speak unless you're spoken to". Sean would be staying with us for the first week or so as we got settled, and as much as we'd protested, Kit and Lauren wouldn't be coming with us. The Nasts needed some sort of guarantee that we wouldn't try to up and run again, and we couldn't really blame them – we didn't have a great track record of staying put when we didn't want to.

...

We arrived in Syracuse in the early afternoon, and it was a perfect day – clear blue skies, unblemished by even a single wisp of a cloud, birds tweeting everywhere, and my mood couldn't have been blacker. It wasn't until we were at the bottom of the long and winding drive to their house that it hit me – I was about to meet the Pack, people I'd only ever heard bad things about, and they expected me to stay with them for at least a _month_. My body reacted with the best defence mechanism it had – I started to Change. Chloe seemed to sense something was wrong, snapped her gaze up to mine and saw the undisguised panic in my eyes, noticing my writhing skin straight after, seeing hair sprouting and retracting everywhere. Her mouth formed a small O before she pointed into the trees and shoved me into them with a hiss, telling me she'd be right there. I dimly heard her tell the others I needed to Change, and that we'd join them in about 10 minutes, and the last thing I heard before I plunged into the trees was Tori complaining bitterly about how she had to trek through a stupid forest, and as if that wasn't enough she now had to wait for me to "go wolf" because I couldn't bloody control my Changes. I managed a quick growl and just managed to reach a small clearing before my knees gave out and I collapsed to the ground. I felt Chloe crouch down next to me and tug off my clothing with quick, precise movements that showed she'd had to do it before, murmuring encouragements the whole time. I'd been Changing for about three years now, so I was long past needing her there to rub my shoulders and whisper soothing words to help me get through it, but it was still nice. As soon as it was over I collapsed against her, panting with the exertion as she combed her fingers through my fur. I started to relax against her, then heard a noise that made me tense again. She reacted to my stillness by going completely silent too, and when I heard it again I leapt to my feet, positioning myself between her and the oncoming threat. I could hear running paws heading our way. Three sets. All splitting off into different directions, not bothering to hide any of the noise they were making, or to stay downwind from us, all of which meant they were pretty damn confident. I caught their scent, which confirmed my fears and I wheeled round to face Chloe, a difficult manoeuvre on four legs instead of two, to find her already standing, looking completely focused and not at all scared. I jerked my muzzle at her, trying to tell her to turn around to face one of the werewolves coming our way, and she somehow got it, turning as instructed. I turned back to face the other two coming our way, and less than five seconds later the three wolves burst through the bushes surrounding us, just as Chloe yelled a very loud "_STOP_!". All of them seemed a little startled at being demanded to stop attacking by such a tiny little thing, and in their confusion they all stopped advancing. I looked at each of them in turn and decided from both their scents and the fact that all three of them were, well, blonde, that they were related. The one facing Chloe curled back his lips and growled at her. My fur bristled at the threat but I knew she wouldn't appreciate me jumping in to try and save her – she could handle herself just fine. She repeated herself again, more quietly, and started to explain who we were when the one that had growled at her before lunged. Chloe dropped and dived out of the way, screaming "Now!" as the wolf twisted in midair, landed, and came at her again. I dropped into a crouch, about to leap at him when I realised that she wasn't looking at me, just as a huge branch lifted off the ground and swung at the wolf like a baseball bat, aiming straight for his head. With a loud _crack_ the branch split in half, and the wolf dropped to the ground with one last surprised yip. It looked like Liz was back.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Some of the chapters are going to be in Kate and Logan's point of view which could get a tiny bit confusing, but I'll tell you whose point of view it is. Please review! :)**

...

**Chapter 2 – Kate and Logan:**

**_Kate_**

I knew that I was behaving incredibly childishly but I just didn't feel like being mature about this. I had been perfectly happy with the way everything was and now mom had to go and ruin it by letting strangers - supernatural strangers - into our house. And not just for a nice chat and a cup of coffee, but for a whole bloody month, at least. I took after my dad in that I hated having people on my territory, and I was definitely not comfortable with having to live with what I saw as potential threats to my family under the same roof for so long. And there were fucking _four_ of them! Because just sending one wasn't enough. Technically there were five people coming, but because I already knew Sean I was comfortable enough with him to not worry he was planning on killing us all in our sleep. He also gained points for being the only person in the Nast cabal to be kind to Savannah, who had spent enough summers with us when Logan and I were little for me to see her as part of the family. I could understand why the mutt was coming – they wanted him to learn about being a werewolf and the only contact he'd had with other werewolves had been mutts that wanted to kill him and his mate. Speaking of his mate, I could see why she had to come along, but why did he need to take his brother and sister with him too? From what I'd heard he wasn't especially close to the witch and even if he was close to the sorcerer they weren't actually related, so I didn't see the point in that either. Of course, it would have been ideal had the mutt not needed to come at all, but I would have settled for just two threats, especially since the girl was only a necromancer, which wasn't much of a threat in my eyes. I continued shouting at the top of my voice, listing all of the reasons mom shouldn't have given them permission to come here, most of them along the lines of "I don't want them here!" but she ignored them all, and eventually ignored me too. But I wasn't giving up that easily. I had a week. I'd make sure they didn't come.

...

**_Logan_**

We'd been called down for breakfast, and while our breakfasts were usually what regular people thought of as a feast, all sorts of food piled on the table, even leftovers from dinner the night before making it onto the stacks of food, today our parents had really outdone themselves. They had even put out a range of puddings and jellies for us, something they only did on special occasions, always joking that too much sugar would be bad for us, knowing full well that our heightened metabolism and active lifestyle would break it all down in a couple of hours. As soon as I saw all of that I knew they had something to tell us, and judging by the amount and kind of food in front of us, we wouldn't like it. Kate had no such premonitions; she just made a beeline for the table, sat down and reached for the nearest stack of pancakes and tub of ice cream. I followed more warily, feeling the food calling to me but still not quite trusting it. She reached back and twisted her blonde curls into a bun, sticking a knife through it to keep it in place, and then continued attacking the food ferociously. Mom and dad waited until Kate was almost done then told us what they'd been hiding. Mom said,

"Sean has asked me to train a young werewolf of about 19 called Derek. He's been Changing for the last 3 years but has never come into contact with any werewolves other than a pair of mutts who tried to kill him and his mate. Because we can always use new recruits, I said yes, even allowing his mate to join him, an 18 year old necromancer called Chloe. Derek's adoptive brother, a sorcerer called Simon, found out and so did Simon's witch sister, Tori. They invited themselves along. I asked Paige what she thought and she asked me to allow at least Tori to come and she would visit and take her off our hands for training. I decided we might as well liven up our summer, so I gave my permission for all of them to come. They will be here in a week's time."

I was barely listening by the end, intent on watching Kate's reaction. She was sitting very still, and asked softly,

"So we now have four supernaturals we don't know coming to visit. And you want to train the mutt, which would take a month at least. You gave four supernaturals permission to come onto our territory for a minimum of a month. Have. You. Lost. Your. Mind."

Mom didn't even flinch at Kate's tone, just looked her calmly in the eye and said,

"Actually, it's five supernaturals. Sean will be accompanying them for the first week or so."

Kate didn't react for about a minute. And then she leaped up, her chair flying back against the wall and grabbed the nearest plate. She hurled it at the wall and picked up the next one, which was also smashed violently. She kept going, and when the things closest to her had all ended up in a heap on the floor, the wall now covered in food remnants, she reached back and threw her chair. She then grabbed the edge of the table and flipped it, screaming abuse the whole time. Her skin started to pulse, fur sprouting everywhere, nails lengthening and thickening to claws. She stopped for a second, eyes closed, breathing hard and concentrating. After another minute or so the fur retracted and she returned to smashing things. Dad looked at her, face blank, but I could have sworn I saw a glimmer of humour and pride in his eyes when he watched Kate. Mom didn't move, just waited it out very calmly and said,

"This isn't up for discussion. It's my decision and mine alone. They _will_ be coming here, and you _will _be on your best behaviour. Clean this up."

She stood up and walked out, dad following her, and I stood up to walk over to Kate. I leaned down to look her in the eye and said,

"We have a week."

...

**_Kate_**

It had been a week and the situation hadn't changed one bit. We were still going to have to enjoy the lovely company of four people who might be more than happy to find a nice sharp carving knife to end us with. But no matter how hard I'd argued with both my parents, using logical(ish) arguments with mom and pointing out all the ways they could hurt us to dad, hoping to get a defensive reaction out of him that would get him on my side. Unfortunately, neither of them gave in. And the trespassers were due here in about 5 hours. Oh joy. Because Logan and I had been Changing for just under a year our Changes weren't completely under control yet, so we were now being accompanied by dad to Change in preparation of their arrival, in the hope that would help us, well, me, though they didn't say that, stay in control. When mom and dad first told us about them being werewolves they hadn't told us straight away that there was a chance we wouldn't get werewolfy powers. I'd had the smaller chance of Changing out of the two of us, so when we both started getting larger appetites and better senses as well as becoming stronger we all waited with baited breath until, after 4 years of waiting, I Changed. Against all odds, I Changed before Logan. Only an hour or so before, but I got there first nonetheless. And it was just as amazing as I'd always thought it would be. The pain was excruciating but the reward was worth every single second of it. Being in another form was amazing, racing through the forest faster than any human could, eyes slitted against the wind whistling past and the branches and undergrowth, feeling the whole forest around me go silent as the animals realised there was a predator amongst them. The feeling of power coursing through my veins mixed with adrenaline. The company of my big brother and the warmth of finding somewhere to hole up together as wolves in winter. The hunts as a full Pack at a Meet. Everything about being a werewolf had its ups and downs, but I wouldn't change it for anything, no matter how corny it might sound.

...

When we were far enough into the forest we each found our own clearing and Changed. I was done second, and started prancing around outside Logan's clearing, showing off, when a yellow coloured bullet flew into me. We rolled around and soon I had Logan pinned by the neck. He was the clever one, better at school, but I was the one who was better at fighting, even if I had no tact when it came to planning ambushes. So we made a decent team. He sighed, surrendering and I leaped off him, tongue lolling out in a grin. He growled and I snarled back. We heard dad approaching, and Logan turned and ran into the forest, me following. It was time for trick the adult wolf. We both separated and raced in random patterns around the trees, jumping into the river and little streams every now and then to confuse dad. We then met up again near our Changing places and tracked dad. We crept forwards slowly, following his scent, being careful not to make any noise and to stay downwind. When we were close enough we split up again, each taking one side, still doing our best to stay silent. When dad was in sight we both charged and tried to jump onto his back, but he was already gone. We chased after him, determined to catch him and use our combined strength to bring him down. We'd never managed it before with mom, dad or Jeremy, bus we'd fooled Noah a few times, and Reece. Nick had Changed with us once before and had said he was never doing it again, but we'd still get him some day. We couldn't best dad, as usual, and the game ended when he pinned me by the throat and Logan stopped trying to attack, surrendering. We continued playing different games, most of them designed to make us better at tracking and fighting as wolves, and to burn off excess energy, and hunted down a fat rabbit when we got hungry. We started to head back to our clothes so we could Change back and be ready for the arrival of the trespassers when we heard a car pull up close to the start of our driveway. They'd gotten here early, and mom was alone in the house, with no-one to protect her because Jeremy was away, visiting Jaime. Our Alpha was in danger, so we did the only thing we could. We attacked.

...

We all started running towards where we'd heard the noise and got there in minutes. The party seemed to be hanging around and not going anywhere, but we were upwind so I couldn't be sure. I caught a female voice complaining about how annoying our forest was and growled to myself. Ignorant human. She had no idea how wrong she really was – our forest was beautiful. Suddenly the wind changed for a second, and I caught the mutt's scent coming from our right. I automatically veered that way, seeing him as the biggest threat, and Logan and dad followed. Logan veered around to block them in, and we burst into the clearing. We were greeted by the sight of a huge black wolf with a short, blonde girl standing with her back to him, facing Logan. At first I thought it was Jeremy facing us because I only registered the same black fur, but then I saw the green eyes staring at us steadily, flicking between me and dad before he rested his gaze on dad, dismissing me as a minor threat. My fur bristled and I got ready to lunge at him when I was distracted by a very loud shout. I wasn't concentrating enough to make out what the girl had shouted, but I saw Logan hesitate as well. He growled at her and I listened more carefully to understand what she was saying, and heard,

"Please stop. We're two of the people meant to come here today, we arrived a bit early and Derek needed to Change. We didn't mean to startle you, we just –"

Logan lunged for her. She dropped without any hesitation and dived out of the way, screaming,

"Now!"

Logan twisted in midair and hunkered down, ready to leap at her again, and I saw the mutt crouch down, facing Logan, clearly planning on attacking him if he leaped. I reacted without thinking. I raced forward and was about to jump onto his back when I saw a big branch lift up and swing towards Logan, who dropped midflight when the branch smashed against his face. I didn't stop to consider what might happen if I attacked her, just changed course and leaped on the girl instead, sure she was the reason the branch had hit Logan. We both went down and I felt her twist underneath me. She brought her knee up and smashed it against the sensitive bit right under my ribcage and I felt the air whoosh out of me in a loud _oomph_, followed by something hitting the back of my head. I felt a blinding pain coming from the base of my skull and everything went dark.

...

**_Logan_**

I leaped for the girl in front of me again, annoyed about missing the first time, and saw a branch come at me out of nowhere. It hit me square in the face and cracked in half from the force it had hit me with. I slitted my eyes against the splinters that rained down around me, and I could barely see Kate jumping on the girl from behind through the pain radiating from my snout. I tried to get out some sort of a warning when I saw one of the halves from the branch lift up again, but couldn't manage it, and it hit her on the back of the head just after the girl kneed her. Kate collapsed and the girl crawled out from under her, shouting something as she did so. I vaguely registered another two figures racing into the clearing, and I crawled forwards until I reached Kate. I kept nudging her with my shoulder, my snout too painful use, until she stirred, opening her eyes slowly, looking up at me with a confused and kind of unfocused look in her eyes. I kept nudging until she sat up a little more and shook her head. She winced, presumably from the pain from the blow to her head and I propped her up, careful to avoid bumping into anything with my snout, which hurt less, but was still painful. I turned to look at what was going on now and saw dad facing off with the mutt and three others standing behind the black wolf. Dad was clearly protecting us, and it seemed like the mutt was doing the same to the people standing behind him. The boy was holding up his hands, little sparks shooting from his fingers as he glared at dad, the taller girl standing casually, hands in pockets, with an arrogant tilt to her chin, looking very confident. She was probably the witch then. Next to her was the girl who'd hit me and then Kate with the branch, which was _still _there, hovering beside her. I stood up and walked over to stand next to dad, hearing Kate do the same thing. The mutt growled and took a step back, but the smaller girl walked forwards. She held out her hands, palms up, and said,

"Ok. Let's try this again, preferably without fighting this time, because that's clearly not going to go well for us."

Both the boy and the girl turned to her with disbelieving expressions, as if she was giving away a huge secret, but she ignored them and continued.

"I'm Chloe, a necromancer, and the person who hit you with that branch is my friend Liz. She used to be telekinetic half-demon so she is now my personal poltergeist. The wolf is my boyfriend Derek, and that's Simon. He's a sorcerer who's now going to _lower his hands_."

The sorcerer did so reluctantly, the sparks stopping.

"Next to him is his half sister Tori, a witch. We came a little early and were going to wait at the bottom of the drive until Sean told you about the situation so we wouldn't surprise you. I'm guessing that's where he is now?"

She turned to look at the witch, who nodded. She turned back and continued her explanation.

"Derek was feeling a little anxious, and he had to Change, as you can see. It wasn't meant as a threat. Please can we go up to the house?"

Dad growled, a clear no, and she backtracked quickly.

"Ok, sorry, should we wait here while you go up and Change back?"

Dad took a step back and her face relaxed onto a smile.

"Ok, see you in a bit then. We'll stay here and Derek will Change back too."

...

When we got back they were still in the clearing as promised, and the big wolf had been replaced by a big guy instead. He stood at about 6'2" and had black hair than hung into bright green eyes which were flicking over each of us restlessly. Next to him, holding his hand, was Chloe, and just behind them was Simon, looking a lot friendlier than he had earlier. Tori was standing a short distance away from them, still looking arrogant. She had short black hair, dark almond shaped eyes and was about 5'7". And she annoyed me, though I had no idea why. All of them relaxed a little when they spotted Sean walking behind us, and he quickly walked over to them.

...

**_Kate_**

Sean was talking and it sounded like some sort of an explanation, though I wasn't really paying attention. I couldn't take my eyes off the cute blond boy – Simon. He looked at me and grinned, the smile lighting up his face, reaching his eyes. I'd met tonnes of guys who would think a twist of the lips with no emotion behind it passed for a smile, and I'd thought them all stupid. And now I'd met one who didn't seem to care about looking cool, he just did what he felt like, and I liked that. I noticed with a little shock that I didn't seem to dislike any of the group any more, and I no longer thought of them as threats, just people I didn't know very well. I looked at Logan and could tell he didn't feel the same way. He was standing in a vaguely defensive position, and kept scanning them all as if to check if they were feeling any more inclined to attack. I resisted the urge to laugh – usually it was the other way round, Logan being willing to at least give strangers a chance while I stood next to him constantly watching the person in case they decided to try something, and it had always been like that, until now. I looked back at Simon and saw that he'd been watching me too, and he looked away quickly, his cheeks going a little pink. I decided to test it and pulled the elastic band out of my hair, letting it tumble freely over my shoulders and down my back. I turned my face the other way but watched him from the corner of my eye, using my hair as a cover. He was looking at me again, a strange expression on his face, and he looked away again when I turned back. I decided I was going to have fun this month after all, and was smiling to myself when I saw everyone freeze.

...

**_Logan_**

Kate seemed to be mellowing towards the others, even smiling at one of them. She reached up and took down her hair, something she always did when she wanted to seem less threatening. I was having no such thoughts and willed her to put it back up – they were still the enemy right now, the strangers, and usually I could count on Kate to be right there with me, always on my side when I didn't like someone. Clearly, not this time. I turned my attention back to what Sean was saying.

"The reason I wanted to send Derek here for a while is that I doubt any cabals would want to employ him because of their... Aversion to werewolves, so I thought I'd give him the opportunity to learn more about his werewolf side before dealing with those issues. However, there is something else that I didn't mention to you on the phone. You see, they were all part of an experiment where the St Cloud cabal was trying to manipulate the genes of supernaturals to reduce the side effects of having supernatural powers. They escaped, but they're still genetically modified supernaturals, and a little different to most."

Everyone, including me, froze. Genetically modified supernaturals? I automatically recoiled a little, taking a step back, and Chloe noticed, nodding to herself with an expression of sad acceptance on her face, making me immediately feel bad. Tori turned to Sean with a look of horror.

"Sean! What the hell? You didn't tell them?!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Nothing much happens in this chapter, no fighting scenes, it's more of a filler. Please review! :)**

...

**Chapter 3 – Tori:**

I stared at Sean in shock, appalled that he'd do something like that. He knew perfectly well what had happened the last time we'd been dumped in a house with people who didn't know the full extent of our altered powers – the first chance they'd gotten they'd shipped us back off to the cabal we'd tried so hard to escape from, to our near certain deaths. That wasn't encouraging, I had to say. So hearing that he hadn't bothered at least warning them about us hardly came as a good surprise. Seriously, what the fuck had he been thinking, leaving that bit of information out? My train of thought was interrupted by the Alpha, who said,

"Sean. I'd like to speak to you for a minute. Privately."

Sean nodded and she lead him further into the forest, out of hearing range for people without super senses. I resumed my train of thought. It was kind of important to both parties that they knew about the whole genetically modified thing so we could avoid the nasty shock regular supernaturals always got from finding out and the painful bit that followed – the looks of disgust mixed with fear, much like the looks wolf boy was shooting us. I met his stare with a cool one of my own trying to hide how it still kind of hurt whenever someone looked at me like that, especially when the look was coming from a pretty cute guy. It always reminded me of my bitch mother, who'd blamed me and had me diagnosed and mentally unstable, then thrown me into a group home to "get better", knowing full well that I never could. Don't get me wrong, I loved being extra powerful and not having to bother with learning spells, but there were times when I desperately wanted to be normal so I could know for sure there weren't any people out there who wanted me dead for something I can't control. I knew the others felt the same way, at least Chloe and Simon, even though Simon had actually turned out a "success" in the eyes of the Edison Group, but people didn't know that the first time they met him so he still had to endure their judging glares. I still found Derek hard to read so I wasn't sure how he felt about the whole thing, though he was probably indifferent. No matter how often Chloe told me he could be really sweet and considerate I didn't believe it. The only side of him I'd ever seen was the overprotective grouchy one, but despite how often I scolded Chloe for being too nice I didn't honestly believe she'd stay with him if she was unhappy, so there had to be some grain of truth in what she kept telling me. While I was quite sure Chloe knew how I actually felt about how the supernatural community thought of us, I was equally sure the guys didn't suspect a thing and I was going to do my best to keep them oblivious. Despite how long I'd known them, and how I'd actually gotten a lot closer to Simon than either of us had ever expected, keeping that barrier up between me and the world had become second nature.

When wolfy didn't drop his gaze I decided to test him, ignoring the voice in the back of my head that sounded suspiciously like Derek's telling me that what I was about to do might be the stupidest thing I could possibly do in this situation. I flexed my fingers a little, little sparks shooting from the tips, only enough to divert his attention to them. The second he focused on the sparks I lifted my hand to show him a ball of energy growing in my palm, swirling blue and green and purple, looking beautiful and deadly at the same time. Chloe noticed and said, a note of warning in her voice,

"Tori..."

I ignored her and tossed the ball into the air and caught it when it came back down, closing my fist around it, making it dissipate into a puff of multicoloured smoke as easily as I'd conjured it up. He stared at the smoke for a moment then brought his gaze back up to my eyes and curled his lip at me. I grinned back, showing my teeth, a habit I'd picked up from Derek, and I could have sworn he growled at me in response. I flexed my fingers again and he recoiled slightly. I took it as a victory and turned away, studying wolf girl instead, who was looking mesmerised by something to my left. I looked over; trying to pinpoint what had captivated her attention and wasn't at all surprised to find that she was staring at Simon. I honestly didn't know exactly what it was about him, but wherever he went he always had at least one admirer and apparently wolfy number 2 wasn't immune to his powers of attraction either. He was looking back at her with a friendly expression, and that was probably part of it – how open his face was most of the time. Girls just knew that he was a good guy. Chloe cleared her throat and as everyone's eyes snapped to her she straightened a little.

"So, we've introduced ourselves, are we allowed to know who's who?"

Both wolf daddy and wolf boy narrowed their eyes, wolf boy setting his jaw to make it even clearer that he wasn't saying anything. Wolf girl seemed to have fallen under Simon's spell enough to answer and said, surprisingly chipper,

"I'm Kate, that's my twin brother Logan," she pointed at wolf boy, "and that's my dad, Clay."

She nodded her head towards wolf daddy, who was staring at her in disbelief, clearly having no idea why she's told us anything at all. If she noticed she gave no sign of it. Chloe smiled at her and said,

"Would it put you more at ease if you knew what's different about our powers?"

Kate opened her mouth to reply but Logan unlocked his jaw and got there first.

"We can hear them talking."

He said it quite rudely and I saw Derek's hand tighten slightly around Chloe's and he shifted her behind him slightly, protecting her from the blond bad wolf. She was having none of it and stepped forwards to stand next to him again, shooting him a reproachful look. She met Logan's gaze with no trace of embarrassment or even annoyance.

"Ok."

I didn't notice it often but Chloe had changed since I'd first met her. She used to be really quiet and scared of her own shadow, not capable of saying "excuse me" loudly, let alone capable of any kind of confrontation, always stuttering as she muttered an excuse before she fled. She hadn't stuttered in years, hadn't backed down anywhere as quickly as she would have then in ages and was a whole lot happier to share her opinion now. I felt a vague sense of pride whenever I noticed again how much more confident she'd become, taking credit for it because of how much I'd torn into her for being too nice, though I had to admit Derek probably also had something to do with it. But much as she'd changed, in some ways she was still exactly the same – she rarely complained and always tried to make the best of any situation. Very annoying sometimes but I guess it was better than being like me – moody and closed off most of the time. Everyone lapsed into silence again, and I stared off into space, randomly picking out past memories and replaying them in my head, mostly ones from when we'd run away from when we ran away from Lyle house. I drifted in and out of them, surfacing every now and then to see if anything had changed before returning to my memories. Each time I returned to the present I noticed the same thing; Simon and Kate were always looking at each other, alternating between glancing at each other surreptitiously and full on staring. And no-one other than me and maybe Chloe noticed, not even her twin brother, who seemed lost in his own thoughts.

...

After what seemed like forever I heard twigs snapping and Sean and wolf leader emerged. Sean looked pleased at first but that expression faded fast when he realised none of us were exactly happy with him, probably me least of all. The Alpha – Elena – looked grim but she said,

"Good that we got that out of the way at the start of this visit. It's safe enough I guess, you can come up to the house."

Yay! We'd been given permission! I rolled my eyes. As if they thought I wouldn't have gone up there regardless. I trudged behind the others up the drive, wishing for the billionth time that werewolves didn't have such a fixation on forests, I'd had to live next to them for years now thanks to Derek. And I still hated the stupid things.

...

"Welcome to Stonehaven,"

Sean said softly. In front of us was a house that stood at over two stories tall, built, predictably, from stone. It was huge and solid, intimidating and inviting at the same time. Elena opened the door and stepped inside, inviting us in as she did so. Chloe tossed me a quick smile and I was nervous enough about the coming visit that I half smiled back. I took a deep breath and walked in.

...

We'd been here for exactly a week and against all odds it was going ok. Derek was still protective at times but everyone could tell he was enjoying the whole learning experience, and he was even starting to get along ok with daddy wolf and Logan. He was out in the forest with them again, as he was every day around this time. Derek had some control over his Changes but could still find it difficult to Change at will – the cabal had only been willing to give him the minimum training and he'd done nothing to try and change their minds, he just accepted that pretty much no-one would ever really want to spend time with a werewolf. Chloe didn't, but no matter how hard she'd fought they hadn't given in, one of the reasons why she'd been so eager to get Derek to agree to coming here. He hadn't needed her there for his Changes in a long time but most of the time she accompanied him anyway, and I honestly had no idea how she could do it time after time. I'd caught a glimpse once and hadn't been able to look at Derek for months without feeling kind of sick. When I'd asked Chloe about it she'd shrugged and told me that she still saw Derek, no matter what form he was in or how far into his Change he was.

The Alpha was downstairs, working away on a laptop and I was guessing Kate would be outside training too. That left me with two options – try to find Simon or go exploring. I hadn't really had the chance to do so yet, I only knew the locations of my bedroom, the bathroom and the kitchen. I definitely knew where the forest was, we were surrounded by it, and I felt no sudden urge to go exploring there. I wandered up the hall, listening carefully at each door for signs of occupation before peeking in. The first room I looked in had a few paintings of wolves on one of the walls. I was going to guess that was the mysterious Jeremy's room because of the paintings. I didn't know a lot about him, only that he was an artist, was the old Alpha and was away visiting his necromancer girlfriend, who Chloe was looking forward to meeting in the hope that she'd be able to give her some extra tips about how to use her powers. I moved on and found Chloe and Derek's room, everything tidy, bed made. Chloe's work I was sure, Derek didn't care as much. The next room I wasn't as careful with, sure that everyone was either outside or somewhere downstairs. I flung the door open and it took my brain a second to process what I was seeing and another one to think up a suitable reaction. On the bed were Simon and Kate, making out enthusiastically, completely oblivious to my presence. Simon was topless, his shirt quite close to me on the floor, and while Kate was thankfully still dressed Simon did have his hand up her top. Some senses wolf girl had – I'd been standing here for at least 10 seconds and she still hadn't noticed me. I crept forwards and grabbed Simon's shirt, visualising a web of electricity covering it and feeling pleased when I felt the current shock me a little. I threw it at them and resisted the urge to laugh when they felt the electrified cloth hit them. Kate reacted immediately, rolling away from the shirt and launching herself off the bed at me when she was clear of it. I thought of a nice barrier between the two of us and she flew into it. Simon was still on the bed, looking a little dazed, but he regained his senses quickly when he saw who it was that was staring at him from the doorway. He cursed and leapt off the bed to join Kate, eyes pleading with me. I didn't bother waiting for any excuses, just said,

"I'd be a lot more careful because next time it might be wolf twin or wolf daddy who walks in on you two, and I doubt they'll be thrilled about it. I'd hate for you to be ripped to tiny pieces because of this."

I left the room and walked downstairs, suddenly much more in the mood for a long walk in the forest.

...

After dinner I went and found Kate in the living room with a book. I caught her eye and gestured for her to follow me, and she stood up, setting the book down on the coffee table. When we reached the stairs she overtook me and walked down the hall and into her room, leaving the door open. I walked in after her, shut the door softly and turned to look at her. She was sitting on the bed, regarding me calmly with a blank expression on her face, only the set of her mouth betraying that she was worried.

"You probably don't know a lot about Simon, so I'm just going to give you some background. He moved around a lot and has had a lot of girlfriends, but there's only ever been one person he was serious about – Chloe – and she hurt him a lot more than he let on when she chose Derek over him. If this just another casual relationship then fine, just try to hide it better. But if he's serious about you, try not to do anything to ruin it. Believe me, I know how cheesy this is going to sound, but you'd better not hurt him."

I turned back to the door, job done, and was about to leave when Kate spoke up.

"How much do you know about my dad?"

"Not much, but if this is about to turn into story time I'm not really interested or in the mood."

"Trust me; you'll want to hear this."

I turned back to her and slumped against the door.

"Fine, but keep it short."

She smiled and said,

"I will. My dad was bitten when he was five or six, and he lived in the bayou until Jeremy heard about him and went there to get him. To survive he had to rely on his wolf instincts, and when it comes to certain things he's still more wolf than human. One of those things is his mating instinct. He never dated and frankly, he kind of despised humans because of how primitive they could be, so he was fairly sure he'd be alone forever. Then he met my mom and she was the first human he didn't instantly dislike. He felt something other than annoyance towards her, and even after he bit her and she pretty much hated him for a decade he still loved her because of that mating instinct having identified her as his lifelong partner. She's the first and the last for him, and I'm like him. I've never dated; I've only ever had a few one night stands. Simon is the first guy I've ever felt anything for, so it's probably him that's going to hurt me, not the other way round."

While I was feeling a little reassured I was mostly feeling blind panic on behalf of Simon.

"So... You're saying you've known my brother for less than a week but that you're planning on being with him for the rest of your life?"

She looked down, a little embarrassed, clearly realising how ridiculous that sounded.

"As I said, not really by choice. Instinct. But yeah, basically. Please don't tell him."

"Oh, I'm not planning on telling anyone that. I'd much rather leave that to you."

She grinned at me and nodded. I smiled back then left, half dreading and half looking forward to when Logan found out about the two of them, and when Simon found out what lay in store for him.

...

It took two days for Logan to walk in on them, and it wasn't like they were making an effort to hide it, so I was surprised it took that long. When Logan realised what was going on everyone heard it because he definitely wasn't being quiet about it.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO MY SISTER?"

I was the first to leap up and race upstairs, maybe to point and laugh and maybe to restrain wolf boy, I wasn't sure yet. When I got there Simon was cowering behind Kate who was trying to do up the buttons on her blouse and keep Logan from doing something like ripping Simon's throat out at the same time. I sighed and put a restraint of my own on Logan and he froze under my binding spell. I said to Kate,

"Go ahead, he can still hear you. I've just put a binding spell on him so he can't rip my brother to shreds before you explain."

She nodded at me gratefully and let go of Logan to finish doing up the buttons.

"Logan, this really isn't what you think it is."

She glanced back at Simon and took a deep breath before resuming.

"I think he's, potentially, my mate."

I was looking at Simon and it took a few seconds for him to realise what she meant. I released the binding spell so Logan could talk, hoping he'd had enough time to rethink murdering Simon. He didn't say anything and still stood frozen. Simon finally stepped forwards and stood facing Kate.

"I'm your potential what?"

She looked down and mumbled,

"Mate. You're my potential mate. And not in the friend way."

Simon looked almost relieved and ducked a little to try and catch her eye.

"And you were going to tell me this when?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Ok, I know it's been a good 6 weeks since I last updated and I sincerely apologise, but exams and stress and holiday and laziness... Well, actually it's none of that I've just been suffering from a severe case of "Ugh, I don't know what to write and I don't wanna" otherwise known as writer's block. So yeah, but I did my best and produced this chapter in time for Sunday! Whoop whoop (I hope)! Enjoy and please review! :)**

...

**Chapter 4 – Simon:**

I was getting used to this lifestyle and I had to admit, the idea of staying here for longer than just a month or two was beginning to sound far more appealing than I would have thought. Of course, step one would be to actually notify the Pack that they might have some trouble with getting me out of the house at the end of summer, but I'd think about that later.

We'd been told yesterday that they were having a Pack Meet, starting today, and that various members of the Pack would be appearing over the course of the next few days and that the whole time would basically be spent eating, talking and going on Pack runs or hunts. Tori, Chloe and I wouldn't be a part of the hunts for obvious reasons - we would struggle just a little with keeping up with them running full pelt in wolf form, but we were all happy to join in with the rest. I knew Chloe and Tori were both rather excited about it, Chloe actually showing her enthusiasm and Tori maintaining the cool, unaffected air of someone who was supremely unbothered by it all, save for the gleam in her eye when she found out who else would be coming down. As it turned out, since finding out about the other supernatural races the Pack had been much more active in the supernatural community and a part of that was inviting some friends to their Meets, those friends all being supernaturals too. The person who Tori was interested in was Savannah, the only other witch-sorcerer hybrid in existence, and also Sean's little sister. She was coming down with her husband Adam and her adoptive parents Paige and Lucas, and Tori couldn't wait to meet the only other person she felt she might be able to relate to about her extra boosted powers. Why she couldn't relate to us about that I wasn't sure – it's not like we weren't all in the same experiment as her and Chloe did have the same "unnatural" boost to her powers.

Chloe was looking forward to meeting Jeremy's mate, Jaime, who was also a necromancer, and that hope for more information was made stronger by the fact that while the Nast cabal had given Chloe the basic information they thought she needed to control her powers they'd never actually let her meet another necromancer to ask questions, thinking it would be a bad idea. Sean had tried to change that but the board had outvoted him, not one member choosing to stand with him on this, and the result was Chloe forever looking for opportunities to meet another necromancer for general tips and information. The prospect of having another necromancer around for weeks was amazing to her, and Derek seemed happy that she was getting something out of this trip too. In any case, Jeremy and Jaime wouldn't be arriving for another couple of days. The non-Pack guests would come a week or so after the Pack members so the werewolves would have some time together first and I was feeling a little nervous about it. So far I was getting along great with Kate and her parents tolerated me, the only person who really disliked me being her brother. It was kind of understandable, I guess, but I couldn't help but worry about the rest of the Pack reacting the same way as Logan.

I tried to roll over in bed but bumped into the warm body of Kate, who was turning out to be far snugglier than expected when asleep. She started off each night firmly on her side of the bed, facing me with her head resting on the crook of her elbow, talking until she started to get tired. Her eyes would start to droop shut and sometimes she visibly shook herself awake while doing her best to keep listening to me, prompting me when I stopped talking to let her sleep. I'd stop when her breathing evened out and then I'd go to sleep too, knowing that I'd wake up with her pressed right up against me. That hadn't gone well the first night – I'd rolled over expecting her to still be on the far side of the bed and had accidentally elbowed her in the side. She'd jumped up and pinned me against the headboard, only half-conscious, and had threatened me with an empty glass on the bedside table before coming to her senses when I tickled her. She'd dropped the glass when she'd been trying to get away from me, and it had smashed into pieces on the floor. She'd promptly thrown a pillow – my pillow – onto the glass shards so the chances of someone stepping on them were smaller.

I looked down at her and I still couldn't believe what I was seeing. Even asleep with a thin line of drool trickling its way down to the pillow, her mouth slack, and in baggy sweatpants and t-shirt she was beautiful. I found it scary that I'd known her for less than two weeks and that I liked her this much and that we were already sleeping in the same bed, but a part of me marvelled at it too. Usually when we'd moved from place to place I'd picked up a girlfriend within days, and although I'd been more serious about some than others not even how I'd felt about Chloe came close to what I felt for Kate. I kissed her on her forehead and was about to get out of bed to get dressed and go down for breakfast when I realised we weren't the only people occupying this bed. There was a man who looked to be in his mid twenties curled up at the foot of the bed, more towards Kate's side than mine, probably why I hadn't noticed him before. I let out a yell and scrambled out of bed, madly looking around for some sort of weapon. I spotted a lamp in the corner and dove for it, wrenching the plug out of the socket and racing back towards the bed, brandishing the lamp in as threatening a way as I could manage. The man on the bed dozed peacefully on, not aware that I was on the verge of running him through with my weapon of choice – the lamp turned out to have a tasteful design of silver rabbits chasing each other under a full moon on a black background on the shade – in a slightly odd attempt to defend myself against this rather inactive threat. Kate had been woken up by my shout though, and was sitting up, rubbing her eye with one hand and leaning on the other as she blinked groggily and looked at the empty spot next to her, at the guy on the bed and up at me. She made a vaguely disgruntled sound at being woken then yawned at looked at me again, marginally more awake this time. She stared at the lamp thrust out before me like a sword and looked back up at me again, her face a mask of utter confusion until she looked at where the lamp was pointed. Seeing the sleeping man at the foot of the bed again she finally seemed to realise what was going on and laughed loudly, throwing her head back as she did so. I felt a vague twinge of annoyance at being laughed at but most of me was focused on the sound of her laugh and how her face lit up and changed completely into a look of pure joy when she did so. Slowly she caught her breath again and she managed to get out,

"That's just... Noah!"

As if that explained everything. Judging by her lack of panic at the guy asleep in her bed, this Noah person was a Pack member, which made sense as we had been told some might arrive in the middle of the night. What I hadn't thought of was where they would sleep – there was only one room left and that was Jeremy's. Apparently the answer to that question was whichever bed they fancied. Kate shook her head and climbed out of bed, stretching upwards and arching her back as she walked over to me. She gently took the lamp out of my hands and set it down next to the bed before turning back to me and reaching up to link her hands behind my neck.

"Good morning crazy person."

"Good morning to you too. And I'm not the one who finds it completely normal to find someone in her bed when she didn't invite them to join her."

She grinned and leaned up to kiss me, something I still found odd. I'd been seeing Chloe and Derek act this way for years but while I'd fantasized about someday having someone to share that same kind of behaviour with it was still strange to actually experience it. I wrapped my arms around her waist and leaned down a little so she wouldn't have to reach up as much, and then she pulled away, hissing in a mock scandalized voice,

"Not in front of Noah!"

I laughed and grabbed for her as she slid out of my grasp and ran for the door, flinging it open and running down the hallway for the stairs. I followed and skidded to a stop when I saw she'd opened the window at the end of the hallway and was crouching on the window sill.

"Kate?"

I was kind of worried – we were two stories up and jumping out of a window wasn't a good idea, maybe not even for a werewolf, though I wasn't entirely sure what she was capable of doing without hurting herself. She looked pretty confident so I used that fact to calm the sudden nerves that had appeared. She flashed me a wide grin and launched herself out. I unfroze and raced towards the window to look out of it, hoping desperately that I wouldn't see her lying on the ground in agony with a broken leg, even if I hadn't heard a cry of pain. I looked down and almost collapsed in relief – she was standing under the window with a huge smile on her face, looking up.

"No fair!" I called down, but she only grinned wider and stuck her tongue out before walking off, presumably to let herself in through the front door. I smiled to myself and went downstairs quickly to meet her by the front door. I leaped out from behind the door just as she opened it and grabbed her round the waist.

"Gotcha."

She reached up and kissed me on the cheek before slipping out of my grasp and taking my hand instead, leading me towards the kitchen for food. Werewolves and their metabolisms. She ate more than me! When we walked into the kitchen she let go of my hand and opened a few cupboard doors, pointing me towards the fridge and instructing that I get out some juice and milk. I complied and watched as she expertly piled three loaves of bread onto plates and balanced jam, peanut butter and marmite on them too while holding a set of knives in her mouth holding a tower of glasses in the other hand. Moving remarkably easily she opened the door with her hip and walked through to the dining room where I heard everything being put down carefully. I felt very unimpressive as I followed her holding only a carton of juice and a carton of milk, and set them down on the table, noticing that there were already two people sitting at the table, who'd gone unnoticed because they were maintaining such a stubborn silence. Tori was sitting at one end of the table and sitting on the opposite side, as far away from her as possible was an annoyed looking Logan, sporting a slightly guilty expression and a mildly pink face, though why he had either I didn't know. Kate was walking around the table, putting down plates and knives in front of each seat. She disappeared again and came back with a bread knife and a wooden chopping board, which she plonked down in front of her before getting to work with the knife and the bread, sawing away quite happily. I sat down at about the middle of the table, expecting Kate to sit next to me when she was done attacking the bread, but instead she moved around the table to sit next to Logan. I couldn't exactly blame her, I mean he was her twin brother, but I couldn't help feeling an acute sense of loss at having her disappear from beside me, and I immediately kicked myself mentally for my weakness. I'd known her for under two weeks for God's sake! I should be able to handle her not sitting next to me at the table easily! I looked over at her and did my best to avoid looking at her as longingly as I wanted to, and was immediately sure I'd failed miserably because Logan shot me a murderous glare as soon as he saw me look at his sister. And I couldn't blame him either. If I'd been closer to Tori I wouldn't have liked any guy who slept in the same bed as her after knowing her for just over a week either. I tore my gaze away quickly and looked at the piles of bread for a second before trying to break the silence that still reigned.

"So, how did everyone sleep?"

Tori just looked at me then lowered her gaze to her plate again, and while Logan didn't respond to me in any way and continued spreading a ridiculous amount of jam onto his toast he did flush a darker shade of pink. Kate shot me a quick smile, but didn't say anything either.

When I heard the sound footsteps coming down the stairs I sent up a silent thank you because the silence was truly unbearable. The only sound I'd been hearing the last ten minutes or so was the sound of knives scraping against toast, things being opened and the munching noises of people chewing. But the cavalry had arrived at last. Elena and Clay walked in, followed closely by a man with dark brown wavy hair, brown eyes and an easy grin.

"Good morning kids, Nick has arrived!"

So that was Nick then. I'd been hoping their arrival would mean the start of at least some conversation but apparently I was wrong. Clay walked over to where his kids were sitting and threw himself down into a chair opposite them, Nick following him and seating himself in the chair next to him. Elena had a quick look at what was available on the table and then walked out of the room, probably to the kitchen. The silence was back. Joy.

Elena walked back into the room, announcing,

"Right, we have all the ingredients for pancakes so we'll be having those for breakfast instead. Clay, go."

She grinned at him and he mock scowled back.

"Never!"

She shrugged and headed casually over to his chair. Kate and Logan shared a knowing smile – they had clearly seen this before. Elena had reached the chair and was leaning over the back of it, her arms around Clay. Then, without warning she hooked her foot around one of the chair legs and toppled it, Clay still on it. Unfortunately for her, he'd grabbed her arms and hadn't let go as he'd fallen so she followed him down to the floor with a yelp. They wrestled for a minute before Elena managed to pin Clay and said,

"I win! And I demand pancakes!"

"Fine!"

Clay sighed dramatically and got up off the floor, walking in the direction of the kitchen with as much dignity as he could muster, which turned out not to be much since he had random bits of fluff attached to his back. Besides, it didn't really matter – the mighty Clayton Danvers, the scariest and baddest wolfy of them all, had been turfed out of his seat to make pancakes. It was a good thing werewolves outside of the Pack didn't know what he did in the mornings or his reputation would be dead. A cheer went up at the prospect of pancakes and with that the silence finally came to an end. When Chloe and Derek came down there was already a pile of hot pancakes waiting and Derek attacked them without hesitation. He simply sat down, grunted a good morning when he was smacked on the arm lightly by Chloe for forgetting his manners and pulled the plate with the tower of pancakes towards him. Chloe seated herself next to him and nibbled on a slice of toast while she chatted happily to a moody Tori and a bubbly Kate. It made me happy to see how well they got on, and also kind of relieved. Kate had told me that when she'd first heard we were coming her she'd flipped out and had been ready to kill all of us as soon as we crossed the threshold, and that then she'd liked us almost straight away because of me. Apparently Kate was usually the one who struggled with tolerating people outside her Pack or extended Pack, and everyone had been expecting her to need a few weeks to warm to us and Logan to be the calm one and to befriend us first. Since Logan still scowled at me whenever I had the nerve to be in the same house as him – so all the time – I didn't think everything had quite gone as expected because Logan clearly didn't like me anywhere near as much as Kate did.

...

Over the course of the day several people wandered into the house, shouted a greeting and disappeared to do whatever it was they felt like. Apparently it's considered rude to knock before coming in as it suggests that you don't think your host wants you there, or something like that, so people just walked in. We were introduced to most of them over lunch but it would take me a while to remember them properly. I definitely remembered Noah because of the shock he'd given me this morning, and when I told him about it he laughed, loudly. He and an Australian werewolf were apparently Nick's wards, and both had joined the Pack around the same time. There was Morgan, a quiet werewolf with red hair and green eyes they'd apparently met in Alaska while on an adventure, and an older werewolf with a bit of a beakish nose and polished good looks who honestly scared me a little. His wife had chosen to stay at home with their daughter apparently, and would be joining him soon enough, and he'd arrived with a stocky man who shared Nick's brown hair and eyes and was Jeremy's best friend. Until I knew their names properly I'd just have to address them with polite "excuse me's". What amazed me the most, however, was how much of a genuine effort Derek was making to be nice to them, without any prompts from Chloe.

...

Pack Meets, as it turns out, were great fun. The constant companionship and good-natured jokes were a very big bonus, but they were just a part of the amazing atmosphere the presence of this eclectic family generated. We stayed up late every night and talked about random things, and a couple of werewolves even turned out to know some supernatural races well enough to give us a few helpful tips. Derek was still definitely learning the most, and for a genius like him being around so many people who could help him so much must have been heaven. I knew he was working on his control over and during his Changes, and part of that seemed to be him staring at his hand intently with a frown as if he expected something to happen. It didn't really make any sense to me but since Chloe knew more and didn't seem concerned I let him be. Jeremy had arrived, and while he talked to everyone the previous Alpha struck me as being surprisingly gentle and quiet. I had just always had the image of a loud, strong and ruthless guy, even if his choice in successor should have told me otherwise. He was also very patient and had pretty much taken over Derek's training, and he seemed to be doing better. Elena had said that Jeremy had been in charge of teaching new werewolves like Reese and Noah and the werewolves in the Pack who had started Changing, meaning he'd helped Kate and Logan through their Changes and taught them as much control as possible. Basically, the guy had experience and Derek was in good hands.

...

We were eating dinner and Clay was telling us how he'd had to learn to fend for himself in the kitchen from a young age because, and everyone agreed with him loudly, Jeremy wasn't capable of making even toast that wasn't burned, and had once made the microwave explode because he had put in a metal tin to warm up the contents, not realising metal was never meant to go in microwaves until the microwave had spewed out flames. I was just making a mental note to never try anything he made when I heard the sound of footsteps coming down the hall, the distinctive _click clack _of heels. Jeremy seemed to recognise the sound and got to his feet just as the woman walked in. I was pretty sure this was Jaime, mainly because part of the description Kate had given me was "red hair, green eyes", and this woman fit both of those characteristics. But what made me positive that this was her was that despite the fact that I knew she was in her late fifties she honestly only looked to be in roughly her mid-forties to me, and she was beautiful. Kate had said as much but I honestly hadn't been expecting this. She had big green eyes that stood out clearly against her cream skin and red hair, and while I wasn't entirely sure if she dyed it or not there wasn't a single streak of white or gray visible. She smiled to reveal a set of straight white teeth, and I hadn't seen any wrinkles or crow's feet until she'd smiled, when it became a little more obvious she wasn't quite as young as she looked. She walked over to Jeremy, kissed him and leaned up to whisper something in his ear. His response was to pick her up and swing her round, making her laugh when he put her down, and there was honestly something sweet in the way they acted around each other, even after having been together for well over a decade. I found myself smiling at Kate and she returned my smile, eyes sparkling, and I really hoped that someday we'd have that.

Jaime turned back to us and grinned again, her arm around Jeremy's waist and his wrapped protectively around hers.

"We have some news."

That got everyone's attention and we all looked up expectantly, some of the werewolves with a gleam of knowledge in their eyes. Jaime looked at Jeremy then back at us and took a deep breath.

"I stayed behind a little longer than Jeremy because I had to sort out a few things. I just finished my last show and have decided to retire, and step one of the retiring plan is... To get married! We're getting married!"

Everyone froze for a second before Kate spoke.

"Well finally! It took you long enough!"

Kate launched herself over the table and bounded towards Jaime and Jeremy, throwing her arms around their shoulders and jumping up and down. She released Jeremy and grabbed hold of Jaime's hands instead, continuing her bouncing and taking Jaime with her and then spinning her round and round. Kate threw her head back as they spun and laughed happily, the sound of her laugh mixing with Jaime's equally thrilled sounding shrieks. Kate's long curls flew around them and I felt an almost happy ache in my heart. This was the girl I wanted to spend my life with, and soon I would find out if she'd really meant it when she'd said I might be her mate, and the prospect filled me with equal measures of longing and dread. I looked over at Logan and almost fell off my chair with surprise when he grinned at me and rolled his eyes. I hurried to return the grin and turned back to Kate.

Chloe laughed and headed over to the still bouncing pair, dragging Derek behind her. Spotting Chloe Kate stopped spinning Jaime around and released her hands once she was sure she was steady on her feet again. Chloe stepped in front of Jaime and introduced herself before congratulating the couple cheerfully. Derek just stood next to her until Chloe reminded him with a not so gentle jab to his stomach with her elbow that he had to say something, and he grunted out a "Congratulations guys", earning an apologetic smile from Chloe. Jaime thanked them and turned to face Elena who was leading the small line of people waiting to congratulate them too.

It was only when everyone had talked to the happy couple that Clay noted

"Hey, where's Nick?"

Everyone looked around the room and when no-one seemed to find him Clay put his head in his hands and muttered something that sounded like "Oh dear God help us."

It was then that Nick appeared in the doorway looking pretty please with himself, carrying two small crates filled with beer bottles with one arm, balancing several bottles of wine on top of the crates and holding three bottles of champagne in his other hand, a fourth tucked under his arm.

"Obviously, we're gonna need these to celebrate properly."

He grinned widely at Clay and Elena before dumping the whole lot on the table and reaching into one of the crates to pull out two beer bottles. He popped off the tops and handed one to Clay with an encouraging nod. Clay took it and glared at Nick without any real annoyance before taking a gulp. Nick was about to start on his own bottle when Kate reached over and snatched it from him with a sweet "Thank you!" and she was about to tip the contents into her mouth when Elena appeared, tutting.

"Where's the respect for your elders gone? Honestly!"

She took the bottle off Kate's hands and swatted away Nick's with an impish grin when he reached over to reclaim his drink. I walked over to the table and got out two bottles and when I realised Kate had already managed to snag one I decided to give it a try. I held one out to Logan, who paused for a second before accepting the beer with a nod.

...

I woke up with a slight hangover and the nagging feeling that something was very wrong. I blinked a couple of times and realised the feeling of wrongness probably had something to do with Chloe's panic stricken face just over mine. I knew that look and scrambled to sit up properly, accidentally dislodging Kate in the process, who'd been sleeping with her head resting on my shoulder, her arm thrown over my chest. She made a disgruntled noise and sat up, taking in Chloe's face with bleary eyes. She croaked out

"What's up?"

She shook her head and cleared her throat then tried again.

"What happened?"

"Derek's gone!"

I groaned internally but that statement did kick start my brain, and I managed to focus more on what was going on.

"Are you sure? He didn't just go for a walk?"

"No, last night the alcohol was getting to him so he said he was going to Change and that he'd be back in a few hours, and not to wait up. I wanted to go with him but he refused, and then he left. I woke up this morning and he wasn't there so I went downstairs to look for him, but he wasn't there either, so I thought he might have fallen asleep outside – it's happened before – so I was about to go and look for him there when I found this."

She thrust a scrap of paper at me and I struggled to focus more on the messy writing. It said:

"If you ever want to see this pup's not so pretty face again, hand over Jeremy. Just tie him up and leave him at the bottom of the drive for me to collect. You have two weeks, but the pup might not survive that long, so I'd hurry.

Malcolm"

I reread it and part of my brain tried to figure out why I recognised that name, but most of it was whirling, trying to find a way to fix this without throwing Jeremy to the sharks. Or werewolf. Whatever, it didn't matter, because my brother had been taken. Noticing I'd processed what the note said, Chloe spoke again, anxiety and panic clear in her voice.

"He's gone. This Malcolm person has kidnapped him and he's gone!"


End file.
